Conversion is a "Little Christmas"

When someone turns to Christ, we say that (s)he is "born again", and quite accurately so. But there is a sense also in which Christ is also "born again" - "born", that is to say, in the spirit of the new believer! Christ comes into that person as his/her new "Self". The old self is not reformed, but is reckoned as being dead in the eyes of God. Growth in the Christian life is by allowing this old, dead, self to wither away and the new Self (Christ within, the hope of glory) to by degrees become the controlling source of ones desires and aspirations.
We are all born with a sort of "spiritual eye" but because of original sin, this is clouded and dysfunctional. Some Christians speak of the Inward Light. This is the Light entering through the spiritual eye, but it is no more a "part" of the human spirit than the natural light entering through the corporeal eye is part of the human body. But even the Light is distorted by the diseased spiritual eye ... until, that is, God heals this "eye" in those he has chosen to be spiritually healed. That is when we spiritually perceive the truth of what the Bible reveals about Jesus and he becomes plain to us, born within us and becoming our true Self.
 
Greetings:

I would say it's an inversion. Instead of going the way of the animals, one goes the way of an angel.

by(e)carg
 
When someone turns to Christ, we say that (s)he is "born again", and quite accurately so. But there is a sense also in which Christ is also "born again" - "born", that is to say, in the spirit of the new believer! Christ comes into that person as his/her new "Self". The old self is not reformed, but is reckoned as being dead in the eyes of God. Growth in the Christian life is by allowing this old, dead, self to wither away and the new Self (Christ within, the hope of glory) to by degrees become the controlling source of ones desires and aspirations.
We are all born with a sort of "spiritual eye" but because of original sin, this is clouded and dysfunctional. Some Christians speak of the Inward Light. This is the Light entering through the spiritual eye, but it is no more a "part" of the human spirit than the natural light entering through the corporeal eye is part of the human body. But even the Light is distorted by the diseased spiritual eye ... until, that is, God heals this "eye" in those he has chosen to be spiritually healed. That is when we spiritually perceive the truth of what the Bible reveals about Jesus and he becomes plain to us, born within us and becoming our true Self.
Hello Daffydd;

Well said, especially the part I blue lighted. I enjoyed reading Conversion is a "Little Christmas"

To me your thread is a nice start as we begin the Christmas Season and the Reason for celebrating Jesus.

God bless you, brother, your whole family and Merry Christmas.
 
Hello Daffydd;

Well said, especially the part I blue lighted. I enjoyed reading Conversion is a "Little Christmas"

To me your thread is a nice start as we begin the Christmas Season and the Reason for celebrating Jesus.

God bless you, brother, your whole family and Merry Christmas.
This aspect of conversion is very much on my mind at present as I have been reading a book about Eckhart von Hochheim ("Meister Eckhart", called by A. W. Tozer "the good Eckhart"). Eckhart stressed the "spiritual birth of Jesus in the individual soul" aspect of conversion, and saw this as as an act of God's grace, open to all seeking people, and not dependent upon the mediation of church, priest or sacrament; a doctrine that ran counter to the official position of the church in the 1300s!
May you have a blessed and happy Christmas, with better prospects for the New Year.
 
Well at the time the established churches thought they had a monopoly on faith, unaware that God mostly operated outside of them to convert people.
I mean He has to, because self-confessed sinners aren't likely to go to church.
 
If Christ is spiritually born in each Christian, it follows that if we all turned away from the remnant influence of our old (pre-converted) self (which is already dead - crucified with Christ- in the eyes of the Father) and allowed the presence of Christ within to be our true "Self", then we would all be of one heart and one mind in perfect union but each manifesting Christ in different (though harmonious) ways. Any group of Christians would then be of one mind (the mind of Christ), whether the group be a Church council, the board of directors of a Christian business or a government. One day the whole human race will be Christian, I believe, and this will be the way that all authority will be displayed, whether in churches or in national (and international) governments. If that is not to happen, then the prayer of Jesus that the Kingdom will come and the Father's will be done on earth as in Heaven would remain unanswered; something that I find unthinkable! This prayer should be the focus for all Christians, prayed with full conviction of its being answered, and the full manifestation of the Father's will on earth as in Heaven - earth as a reflection of Heaven itself - should be the goal toward which we all should be looking; the end result of the role that each of us is called to play (be that apparently large or small) as a follower of Christ.
 
I think it will be heavenly if everyone you met was christian, there would never be any kind of conflict that inevitably comes when people have different agendas and purposes.

I think Christmas day can possibly be a day when there's peace and good will and everyone makes the effort to make it so. Just one day though. Imagine it being like that EVERY DAY.
 
I think it will be heavenly if everyone you met was christian, there would never be any kind of conflict that inevitably comes when people have different agendas and purposes.

I think Christmas day can possibly be a day when there's peace and good will and everyone makes the effort to make it so. Just one day though. Imagine it being like that EVERY DAY.
Yes indeed! And ((in the words of the old Bing Crosby song) "its only a prayer away" (the prayer that Jesus himself taught us to pray)!
God works through us to bring this about, if only we yield to the Spirit of Christ within and let him work through us to establish his Kingdom. We each have a part to play, be it large or small. We are all organs in the Body of Christ through which God works to convert the nations and establish his Kingdom. Let us hold to this vision and make it our principal aim in life!
 
Following on from the Kingdom being "just a prayer away" (I got the name of the old song wrong!) we can say that it is up to Christians to "pray in the Kingdom"! The establishment of the Kingdom on earth is God's main desire for the human race and He really WANTS to answer the prayer "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as in Heaven". If this was also the most fervent prayer of all Christians and our foremost desire, the Kingdom would quickly come, the world wold be converted and Christ's rule would be the only authority. But to have this desire foremost, we must be in union with Christ; the Fountain of our desire can be none other than "Christ within". Our desire must be Christ's desire acting through us and determining our prayer. We pray that God will grant us to know the full force of Paul's words in Gal. 2:20, just as He did for Norman Grubb nearly 100 years ago in a spiritual insight that determined the ministry of that godly man for the next 60+ years. Then, when these words become descriptions of our own Christian life, we can truly pray, with conviction and fervor, "Your Kingdom come ..."
 
Back
Top